Florida IT Files, Part 4. This year, Q4 budgeting comes with two deadlines that are not up for debate.
Most Q4 IT planning is a formality: someone glances at last year’s number, adds ten percent, and moves on. This year is different. Windows 10’s Extended Security Updates jump from $61 to $122 per device the moment Year Two starts in November, and the Section 179 deduction that lets a business write off new equipment this tax year closes on December 31. Both dates fall inside the same budget cycle most businesses are building right now.
Here is what actually belongs on that list, and why the timing matters more than usual this year.
The Hardware Bill That Doubles in November
Microsoft ended standard support for Windows 10 in October 2025. Businesses that bought a year of Extended Security Updates to buy themselves time are about to hit the renewal, and the price does not stay flat.
- Year One ESU coverage runs about $61 per device through October 2026.
- Year Two, starting in November, runs about $122 per device, and Year Three after that runs roughly $244.
- Windows 10 Home machines get no ESU option at all; support simply ends.
Fifteen or twenty machines on Windows 10 comes out to $1,830 to $2,440 a year in ESU fees alone at the Year Two price, and that number only grows in Year Three.
The Tax Deadline That Makes Buying Now Cheaper
If a hardware refresh is coming anyway, timing it before December 31 changes the math. The 2026 Section 179 limit runs up to $2,560,000, more room than most Florida SMB refreshes will ever need.
- Confirm which planned purchases, computers, servers, and other equipment, actually qualify as Section 179 property.
- Order now if a purchase is already on the list; equipment has to be purchased and actually in service by December 31, not just ordered or invoiced.
- Talk to a tax professional before finalizing anything, to confirm what the deduction is actually worth against this year’s numbers.
- Keep the paperwork that shows when equipment went into service, not just when it was bought.
This does not mean buying equipment a business does not need; it means replacing what was already on the list before the calendar flips instead of after.
The Renewals Nobody Rereads Twice
Software licenses, vendor contracts, and telecom agreements tend to bunch up at year end because that is when most of them were originally signed. Auto-renewal is convenient until it renews something a business meant to shop around on, or a seat count that no longer matches headcount.
- Pull the list of everything set to renew between now and January.
- Check seat counts and usage against what is actually being paid for.
- Flag anything renewing automatically that has not been reviewed in over a year.
If checking license usage against what a business is actually paying for sounds like a project on its own, unused licenses are one of the things a GiaSpace IT audit flags.
The Staffing Swing Coming in October
Florida’s snowbird season runs October through April, and per Florida Gulf Coast University’s Regional Economic Research Institute, businesses across the state ramp up staffing fast to meet it. That means a wave of new logins, devices, and access requests landing in a short window. A new hire on day one needs a working email, POS access, and network credentials already set up (not a ticket sitting behind everyone else’s).
- Build a repeatable onboarding checklist now, before the first seasonal hire shows up.
- Confirm the network and POS systems can handle full winter volume, not just the current summer load.
- Plan for offboarding just as deliberately each spring, so nobody is still logged into anything come May.
None of This Waits Until December
Every item here has the same problem: it looks like a next-quarter task until the deadline is a week away. The ESU price change and the Section 179 cutoff both land before the year is out, and neither one gives a grace period.
Where GiaSpace Fits
We help Florida businesses turn deadlines like these into an actual budget, not a placeholder number.
→ Schedule a Q4 IT Planning Call with Rob Giannini, our CEO & Founder
